Indian politics in the age of social media

Shaili Chopra’s latest book The Big Connect looks at Indian “politics in the age of social media”.

So much has been repeatedly written about the impact of social media on the polls this time, that any new story on the same elicits a bored scroll-through. People watch the drama unfold on social networks, and are in turn watched with wonder as India experiences its first ever national election played out on online channels. For those who have been following political developments and debates online or even through the news, The Big Connect will add little to what they know already.

Coming from a journalist of Chopra’s stature, one would expect the book to make a larger point or an observation that has so far escaped the others, adding to a rapidly evolving narrative. However, it ends up being a 101 for the uninitiated.

Through several chapters, the book covers, inter alia, the impact of social media on politics, the demographic active on these networks, BJP’s proliferation online and AAP’s clever use of the platform. The chapters are peppered with grey boxes often with advice from experts on social media and politics, or lessons from gaffes and moves that worked. These are conveniently presented in bullet points in quite a few chapters, giving it the appearance of a self-help book without really being one. Shashi Tharoor’s “cattle class” comment, which acquired epic proportions, makes an appearance twice. The “Pappu vs Feku” debates, Rahul Gandhi’s “escape velocity” comment, and the impact of other such “events” also make an appearance, though in only in an expository manner. One wishes the book delved deeper into how and why these episodes captured the imagination of the engaged citizen on the Internet.

The “references” section at the end of each chapter is a long list of URLs, predominantly from news websites, offered without preface or comment. While un-clickable in a physical book, they also have the added disadvantage of offering little information at first glance. And then, lines like “According to a website, the top hashtags for 2013 included…” with the word “website” superscripted with a reference number, does make a discerning reader do a double take. Thankfully enough, one can read the links (if not visit them) for keywords to ascertain what the primary material was actually about. (The website in question in the above line was mensxp.com)

The book also ends up being highly Twitter-centric. However, Chopra can hardly be faulted for that since none of our political leaders have shown the same alacrity in taking to other platforms like Tumblr or Pinterest. Tharoor stands out with an Instagram account, while Derek O’Brien recently tweeted about wanting to set one up. It would also be probably unfair to go into details of the several typos and errors (“dawning” a halo instead of “donning” one), and inconsistent kerning in a couple of places since this is only the first edition of the book, presumably rushed out to cash in on the elections. But should you rush out to read it? If completely clueless about the raging online action in the political space, you might as well. If not, it’s a safe skip.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Author

Kim Arora is reporter with Times of India’s news features team in New Delhi. She writes on a wide variety of subjects such as web,
technology, books, publishing and women’s issues, which also happen to be her personal interests. Her spare and not-so-spare time is largely spent devouring books of all possible kinds and trawling the Internet for memes, vlogs and cat videos. She tweets a fair bit and can be found posting her observations about life, universe and everything from the handle @arorakim.

Kim Arora is reporter with Times of India’s news features team in New Delhi. She writes on a wide variety of subjects such as web,
technology, books, pub. . .